Cussey Pot
During Lockdown 2020 a new hole was spotted to draught bigger and stronger than any cave in the Peak. We dug it open and this is what happened....
Full description of the trip can be viewed here.
The current survey can be downloaded from here.
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- Written by: Jon Pemberton
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A solid effort from TA this evening with all honorary members present: (Eavis.R, Cafferty.L & Pemberton.J)
We were keen to drop the newly discovered pitch from Wednesday so made a super rare but not un-heard of 2-in-a-week trip. Again we met at the cave and downed a quick pre-beer to sort us out and wasted little time in reaching The NCA Section with the C in tow. The place was unfortunately nearly void of draught this evening which was a bummer considering the outcome as it would’ve made exploring a lot easier but heck! – We had a massive pitch to drop.
Rob bolted the pitch and “ummed and arred” enough to think Jeffrey was present – to be fair we were balls deep in a large (for the Peak District) boulder choke and any sense of being “bomber” had gone out the window. Unluckily I dropped my glove which caused huge complications until retrieval half way down. Rob had to place a re-belay close to the bottom to steer clear of a major rub point, with the rope free Luke followed as did I. The pitch dropped down through large poised boulders with the westerly wall being the only thing solid in there. Approx. 12m down the pitch ledged out coincidently right where the re-belay was placed. Idiotically the re-belay was anchored into a smallish (on the scale of things) boulder chocked in between two other boulders which we’d just abseiled through. Rob must’ve seen the floor and thought, “bugger it, I’m nearly down…”
Once we were all on the floor some -16m down (not the -50m [at least] we were expecting) we quickly met a fateful conclusion of being well and truly crapped out. The place has widened out into a chamber like place but on further inspection it looked more like the solid walls were just really large boulders with the exception of the westwall. The floor ramped down on boulders to a horrible silt termination where the water appears to back up to this level. With no ways on this would be dig no.1, one being a number and not its number of priority.
Luke at the bottom of Rocky Horror pitch
We left the pitch now named “Rocky Horror” rigged ready for us to survey it on the next trip. Once up we inspected a few more voids in the choke but none proved fruitful. Luke and I checked a small hole I found on the previous trip which looked super dodgy. After the removal of a few boulders we were left with a squeeze under a dodgy chock stone which gave us access to a pitch down with the floor out of view. It felt very much like summat out of the Carlswark Dynamite series but this was left for now and would require the removal of a boulder to push safely.
Further back towards the main chamber Rob inspected a southerly lead (I say southerly but all estimations were made from an app on Rob’s phone which possibly required signal to work properly…). He followed the lead for some way, through tight rifts and between boulders, and once he’d reached the head of the Rocky Horror pitch he decided to turn around. It was getting late so we grabbed all of our gear and made way for the main chamber, now coined "Time Warp".
We sat and thought through our potential leads left to visit. There was a climb in the roof of Time Warp which would require some proper gear and a lot more bolts, secondly was the climb up The Black Aven. Rob and Luke had noted a passage heading off east on the previous trip and with a little push Rob kitted up ready to lead the traverse from higher up in the chamber with the 3 bolts he had left. After knocking down a load of loose rock and me nearly falling down the pitch (luckily Lukey boy saved my life) Rob made swift progress to safety beyond the abyss below and after checking to make sure it continued he anchored the rope his side and we fixed the line at each bolt. I followed and after a little moan so did Luke. A climb up and over a loose boulder led to what we now call “Walzernice” an eastward trending keyhole passage with various collapses along the way. This continued for 30 or so metres to a complete choke passing under an incredibly fractured chocked rock leaning precariously over one’s head nicknamed “The Stemple of Doom”.
Jon traversing across the Black Rift
Rob below the Stemple of Doom
Rob checked out a small lead heading off from the end but to no avail. After a little “schninkling” we headed back down to Time Warp and checked out one final lead in the boulder choked floor. Luke had spotted this first when we found the main chamber but shrugged it off as it looked pretty ghastly. A climb down through boulders followed by a squeeze under some more boulders led to a tight vertical rift, "Tight'un", in what appeared to be solid rock below the choke. I took lead and climbed down as far as I could with my SRT kit on. I stopped at a tight section then let Rob pass me who explored below and after consulting his compass realised the bottom most section (roughly 6m below) was heading due south towards The Rocky Horror and ended at a tight rift which’d need capping but this seemed to be the only place which was draughting.
Jon exploring along Walzernice
We headed once again back to our perch above the choke in the main chamber and after exhausting all the obvious leads decided to leave. Surveying it is our next priority and fingers crossed the draught will be present.
Two late nights a week really buggered me and I crawled up most of the climbs pitches cursing my stupid Jon’s Drum and ever bringing the bloody thing. What was strange was that when I exited the draught was pounding out of the entrance which the guys also noticed around the same time – go figure…
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Team Awesome (Luke Cafferty, Rob Eavis, Jon Pemberton) with a Hal.
After 3 long weeks tonight was finally the night to descend NCA pitch with the C. In the meantime Hal had been busy installing a mint lid on the cave entrance.
A bit later start we met at the cave and after a quick pre-beer armed with a couple of lengths of rope and bolts we hastily made our way to the NCA pitch. Plan was for Luke and I to rig the pitch and for Rob and Hal to enlarge the NCA squeeze. I down climbed the pitch and found a suitable place for a Y-hang and wasted little time rigging with the bolting lump hammer. I started to descend as Luke shouted up to Rob the situation. After a few metres I could see clearly over the top of a large poised boulder that the route forward (East) was clearly wide, wide open and BIG! I Shouted up to Luke who then relayed the message to Rob who quickly dropped everything and left Hal to enlarge the squeeze by himself…
Once on the floor I shouted up to Luke who quickly followed me down. I was now stood at the western end of a large boulder floored rift passage stretching out into blackness, things started to get really exciting really fast. Luke joined me then we agreed to wait for Rob and explore with all TA members present. We moved forward with Rob filming on his phone, the rift was some 1-1.5m wide and probably 8m high, after 15 or so metres we entered a large collapsed area with holes going off in the floor everywhere. A climb over some car sized boulders gained us access to great views of the chamber above where we stood and admired the amazing typical Stoney shell beds lining the walls of the chamber.
The excited Team at the bottom of NCA Pitch
Looking east long the rift - Photo by JonP
We first looked at the eastern end of the chamber and a squeeze through some poised boulders gained us access to the base of The Black Aven which at this level the walls were completely black, and the floor choked with boulders. The roof being approx. 20m above which we later accessed higher up in the choke. We then noted a few more holes in the floor which’d warrant further inspection. A climb over boulders at the southern end we reached a complex area of the choke and after a good fettle which involved poking your nose in every hole we found a solid wall and a funnel of boulders leading to a pitch. Rob chucked down a few rocks and it sounded epic! Boulders would crash down for a few seconds. Having left all our gear back at the bottom of the pitch we decided to call it a night here having to hold ourselves not to spend all night here. We headed back to the main chamber and took a few photos before heading back to surface for a not too late night and agreed to return on Friday to descend the new pitch.
The main chamber - Photo by JonP
We made contact with Hal at the bottom of NCA pitch who had fallen asleep after some fantastic efforts enlarging the squeeze - Thanks Hal.
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Team Awesome minus a Rob.
After a hasty pre beer in’t Miners we dashed over to Cussey and quickly kitted up ready to descend. We paused at the bottom of Nomenca Choke so I could take a quick picture whilst climbed down. I told Luke what I thought in regards to digging the tight rift at the bottom of the choke, he dug the floor and we stacked in the choke taking extra care not to touch much, Luke reassured me it looked pretty tight and there was one head sized boulder blocking the hole at floor level. We loosely agreed to start removing the solid walls. Instead of going hell for leather with the drill I picked up the lump hammer and started to hit the walls where it pinched up. To our delight the walls crumbled away with ease and I was soon far enough in the squeeze to kick the boulder blocking the route further forward into the unknown. I pulled back and removed a small flake which pointed straight into the squeeze, once this was removed I removed my big bulky miners kneepads (classic Jon trait) and started to push through. It was snug for sure but not desperate and after some awkward movements for someone who doesn’t bend very easy I was through – Mission accomplished.
I was now through into a continuation of the cross rift beyond the pinch point, about 1m wide, 5m high and 3m long. The draught was howling through a small void between boulders at the far end where I could briefly see through to a floor 3m or so down. I told Luke about the chamber and we stood in silence whilst I chucked a rock through the void – here’s where it got real exciting. The rock boomed and banged followed by a large hollow thud, a brief pause then a further bang! – Bloody hell, We’d only gone a proper broke through without the EAVIS!!
We giggled a little and threw some more rocks into the void, I turned back around and dug the floor out from the squeeze so Luke could now easily pass through. After chucking yet more rocks down the pitch we then made a conscious effort to gain access to the pitch head. The problem was two massive boulders pinched in the rift above the pitch head, we removed some smaller rocks from around them thus blocking ourselves in and started about an hour’s worth of capping resulting in a clear’ish pitch head. I took lead and squeezed through into the head of the pitch, luckily it was plentiful with ledges and with Luke’s blessing of “don’t die!” I traversed over to get a clear glance of the blackness below. At the far end the rift widened and met a cross joint, here the whole place gets wider and I could see it bells out below to a boulder floor some 10m below my feet. Luke followed me through and we both perched and passed one another comfortably above the pitch.
After a quick selfie we started to retreat to the heat on surface clearing the pitch head one last time and pausing to take a few snaps.
Lessons learned… NCA = big breaktrough (huh Rob?)
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Cue Black Sabbath...
Team Awesome armed with a Hal.
After a quick pre-beer at our favourite local we headed over to Cussey and hastily got kitted up. Not much to take tonight just a bag full of scaff clips which Rob wouldn't let us chuck down the shaft.
Luke and I dropped down to the choke and started to remove some rocks from the floor. Some rocks which we'd previously thought were massive turned out to be mediocre and we managed to remove them by hand but it didn't give us much hope for what we'd been standing on all last trip. Rob and Hal cut a made to measure bar up below the entrance which once down Rob clipped into place and started to stack rocks from the floor behind it eliminating the need to pass back. After a final cap of a too large boulder in the floor we now had a human size hole to the void below, cue Black Sabbath...
Rob asked for the ladder which meant business. We bolted just above the void as close to the wall as possible to cause less disruption to the hanging death. Rob started to descend and it wasn't until he was neck deep that he started shouting back up, "NO, NO, NO!" turns out he didn't remove all the loose stuff. Once corrected he jumped from the bottom of the ladder, found safety in solidness and shouted back up that he was alright. He was now in a fairly solid rift which pinched up behind him, clean washed and looking exactly like the rift down in Cherticle Aven in Doom. In front of him and where the ladder hung down was a mass boulder ruckle with some rather large bonnet sized boulders all seemed to be held up by a key stone the size of a shoe box. Rob really didn't like it down in the void but was keen to dig down with a strong draught coming from the rift and floor.
After making a quick video of the neckiness he returned through the hole and after a quick look of how we are to progress we started to ascend to daylight.
Lots of scaff and capping in store ahead, watch this space.
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Team Awesome & Team Crumpet (Jeff & Dylan)
After socially distanced pre-beers in The Miners we headed over to Cussey armed with many bars of scaffolding thanks to Hal, the biggest being 3m which Rob deemed perfect for an idea which he had in his head regarding Nomenca Choke. We gently lowered each bar of scaffolding down the entrance pitch with a rope which we left in the car and once all below formed a chain to lower the bars down to the choke. The big boy (3m bar) was slightly too large to take up caving so Jeff armed with trusty scaff cutter removed approx. 10mm (right Luke?) and after some slight modification to the walls the bar was safely down the Nomenca Rift to it's final resting place in Hell (literally)...
Rob made a top job on wanging bits of scaff together to resemble something which looked moderately safe to be under. We removed some more rocks from the floor which started to become very voidy very rapidly and thus became more unstable very quickly. It was now Team Crumpets turn to take over and Jeff made a fantastic job wanging in a few more scaff bars and also pinned one to a possible solid wall.
Lukey Boy now took the sharp end whilst Rob sat and got cold but it wasn't long until the whole place became unstable to the point of no return. We left it here for tonight and vowed to return with some more Kerplunk straws.
Game on hold for now.